Rush Street posts double-digit increases in fourth quarter

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2025/05/01: Rush Street Interactive earnings, profit grow in first quarter 2025/10/30: Rush Street Interactive sees upside across the board in third-quarter outlook 2025/10/30: Rush Street Interactive revenue spikes in third quarter 2025/02/27: Rush Street Interactive posts revenue surge and modest profit

The Backstory

How Rush Street got here

Rush Street Interactive’s fourth-quarter surge caps a two-year arc defined by aggressive user growth, tighter marketing discipline and a measured expansion strategy that leans on online casino fundamentals. The company had already flagged this trajectory to investors. A year earlier, it posted a sharp top-line jump and returned to modest profitability in the 2024 fourth quarter, setting 2025 targets that it has since exceeded. In that period, revenue rose 31% to $254.2 million and cash flow swung positive, signaling the first leg of a rebound from uneven pandemic-era comparables and promotional drag. Management emphasized that spending to acquire players was rising, but so were active users and retention, particularly in igaming. Those points set the stage for the growth now reflected in the latest quarter and the 2025 full-year print.

That 2024 base is documented in Rush Street Interactive posts revenue surge and modest profit, where the company paired higher marketing outlays with outsized gains in monthly active users across North America and Latin America. Average revenue per user held steady or better in the more profitable U.S. and Canada segment while Latin America volumes scaled. The mix — North America for value, Latin America for reach — became the through line of the next four quarters.

Momentum through 2025 and a clear playbook

The operating cadence carried into early 2025. In the first quarter, Rush Street grew revenue 21% to $262.4 million and flipped to an $11.2 million profit from a year-earlier loss. Cash flow rose 95% to $33.2 million even as marketing inched up, a sign that customer acquisition and retention were becoming more efficient at scale. North American monthly actives increased 17%. Latin America, where the company has leaned into regulated markets with a local brand footprint, climbed 61% in actives despite lower per-customer revenue as currency, taxes and value-conscious bettors weighed on yield. Management stuck with full-year guidance and kept capital returns opportunistic, repurchasing a small block of stock and preserving cash for expansion.

The quarter is detailed in Rush Street Interactive earnings, profit grow in first quarter. The results underscored a deliberate approach: spend steadily, expand the active base and let online casino’s steadier margins and engagement offset the volatility of sports results. That same approach underpins the company’s new 2026 outlook, which layers higher revenue and cash flow targets on the foundation of broader product and geography coverage — particularly as player cohorts in newer jurisdictions mature.

Regulatory crosscurrents in Latin America

The company’s Latin America thesis has been stress-tested by policy shifts, and those frictions inform today’s numbers. In Colombia, a double-digit value-added tax on gambling spiked costs and distorted player behavior, prompting Rush Street to push more bonusing to blunt the impact. The company told investors that the VAT, expected to sunset unless extended, compressed gross gaming revenue but could ultimately improve profitability once it rolls off. Mexico has posed its own risks, with the prospect of a higher tax rate pushing operators to recalibrate offers and marketing intensity. Even so, management has described Latin America as a long runway, citing scale, brand recognition and a diversified product mix.

Those dynamics were laid out in Rush Street Interactive sees upside across the board in third-quarter outlook. The company said Latin American revenue accelerated late in the third quarter of 2024 and emphasized that growth was not tied to marquee sporting events. That matters for a business leaning into igaming, where engagement is steadier and cash conversion can be more predictable. In the latest quarter, the company again pointed to Latin America resilience despite regulatory headwinds, suggesting the investments to sustain player growth there are holding.

Competitive context: scale, margins and product bets

Rush Street’s outperformance lands in a market where top-tier competitors are also leaning on stronger margins and product breadth. DraftKings, the largest pure-play U.S. operator, reported a 43% fourth-quarter revenue jump to $1.9 billion, record adjusted EBITDA and average revenue per monthly unique payer up 43% to $139. It launched 2026 guidance calling for $6.5 billion to $6.9 billion in revenue and stepped-up investment in a predictions platform to widen its funnel. That expansion — adjacent to regulated betting — is a bid to acquire millions of new users at lower cost and convert them into higher-value products over time.

The move and the underlying results are detailed in DraftKings’ revenue increases by 43% to nearly $2 billion in fourth quarter. For Rush Street, which has been more cautious on prediction markets and sweepstakes-style products, the competitive implication is twofold: acquire efficiently where regulation is clear and rely on igaming depth to defend margins, while watching whether low-friction, nonwagering channels change customer acquisition costs and lifetime values across the industry.

In Latin America, Codere Online offers a different reference point. The operator reported fourth-quarter net gaming revenue up 5% to €52.6 million, with Spain growing 10% and Mexico flat as currency devaluation offset underlying gains. Monthly active players rose in Mexico and Spain but slipped in other markets. The company, which has navigated Nasdaq compliance issues, said Mexico would have grown 14% on a constant currency basis, highlighting the forex risk that also shapes Rush Street’s reported averages in the region. Those results are in Codere Online net gaming revenue increases 5% in fourth quarter.

What the guidance says about 2026

Rush Street’s new 2026 targets — higher revenue and a step-up in cash flow — suggest renewed confidence that online casino momentum will persist, North American cohorts will continue to deepen and Latin America will contribute scaled volume even as local policies ebb and flow. The company ended the latest quarter with a sizable cash cushion and no debt, providing flexibility to calibrate marketing, repurchase shares opportunistically or pursue new market entries without diluting returns. That posture resembles the stance it took through 2024 and early 2025, as documented in the third-quarter commentary and first-quarter beat.

The stakes are clear. If more U.S. states legalize igaming — a point Rush Street has lobbied for alongside peers — the company’s casino-first orientation could unlock outsized gains relative to sportsbooks with thinner hold and more seasonal patterns. Management has also argued that the rise of unregulated or gray-area products could push lawmakers toward tighter regimes, potentially hastening legal market expansion. That thesis surfaced in the third-quarter discussion around sweepstakes and prediction markets, where Rush Street’s caution contrasted with competitors’ experimentation.

Why investors are watching the mix

The path forward will hinge on sustaining high-value users in the U.S. and Canada while converting Latin America’s scale into better yield. In North America, average revenue per user near the mid-$300s has proved durable across multiple quarters. Marketing spend has grown, but so have cash returns, indicating improved payback periods. In Latin America, average revenue per user has been lower and more sensitive to taxation and currency. The company’s strategy — keep adding players, absorb near-term pressure with targeted bonusing and ride out policy shifts — has so far delivered volume that offsets yield compression.

The broader market context adds urgency. DraftKings’ margin expansion and product adjacency push, and Codere Online’s currency-hit results in Mexico, show how operator choices and external forces can widen performance gaps. Rush Street’s guidance implies it intends to stay on offense — deepening igaming, managing promotions with more precision and balancing its geographic mix. If state-level momentum for igaming accelerates and Latin American tax headwinds ease, the company’s current trajectory points to another step up in revenue and cash generation in 2026.